Consumers protest movie chains

By Kim Se-jeong

A coalition of civic groups is stepping up their campaign against three major movie theater chains _ CGV, Lotte Cinema and Megabox _ accusing them of unethical business practices.

The civic groups, including People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), Lawyers for a Democratic Society and the Youth Community Union, protested near a Lotte Cinema theater in Jongno, Seoul, Thursday, saying the chains are ripping customers off.

They asked the firms to address the top 10 consumer complaints.

“These complaints mean a lot when watching movies is an important pastime activity for Koreans,” a PSPD activist said.

The coalition earlier opened up a debate room on an online chatting site, Agora, to compile complaints from moviegoers.

The list of complaints included a long period of advertisements prior to the movie; the high price of popcorn and beverages; a restriction on bonus-point usage during weekends; expensive 3D movie prices and charging high prices for the lease of 3D glasses; monopoly and oligopoly among the three operators; expensive parking fees; giving no discounts for front-row seats; bad quality of seats; and ill treatment of part-time employees.

Complaints about prices are the most common. A complaint about 3D movies and 3D glasses is a recent one, where people have demanded explanations for what makes 3D movies cost more and why the operators charge extra for glasses that customers cannot keep. When it comes to the working environment for part-timers, the coalition said it will embark on a separate investigation before taking further action.

A posting on Agora described how CGV abused employees to save money. The worker wrote that when she was one second late for work, the automatic check-in system docked her overtime wages. Also, she explained the company deliberately cut their working hours on short notice to save money.

The coalition earlier filed a complaint with the Fair Trade Commission to ask for an investigation into the firms’ business practices.

Theater operators tried to distance themselves from the complaints.

“It is sad to be accused of deliberately keeping movie prices high,” said a CGV official said. “Things are interconnected. A price hike is the least favorite thing for us to do because then people won’t come to watch movies. But things get expensive and we need to keep things in balance. We need advertisements to maintain our revenue.”

According to the Korean Film Council, 356 movie theaters were scattered across the country last year and 295, or 82 percent of them, are multiplexes. Also, people went to an average of 4.19 movies in 2014.